Cardamom Ginger Crunch

Usually when I'm going to blog about a recipe, I have a pretty good idea as I'm making it and end up snapping pictures of the various stages (sometimes coming dangerously close to interfering with said recipe...)

But I didn't plan ahead here. In fact, it was almost midnight and I was feeling restless when I stepped into the kitchen to whip up this crunchy sweet treat. And oh man, was it worth it! My coworkers thought so too, once I brought it into work so I wouldn't eat the whole thing myself...

So even though I don't have the requisite pictures, I felt compelled to share. Any time you get the chance to envelop your kitchen in spices and melted butter, you're going to feel pretty serene. Then you take a bite and it's even better.

Rather than ground cardamom and ginger, I worked with cardamom pods (which I cracked, extracted the seeds from, and then ground the seeds) and freshly grated ginger. For the glaze, I went with a combination of cinnamon and nutmeg rather than more cardamom, plus the grated ginger. I didn't have confectioners' sugar—see above about not planning ahead—so I threw granulated sugar into the blender with a little cornstarch. Et voilà! Crunchy, spicy goodness.

Cardamom Ginger Crunch (adapted from Saveur)Yield: 12 pieces Ingredients:
For shortbread:
4 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cups flour, sifted
1/2 inch ginger, peeled and grated
3 cardamom pods, seeds extracted and ground
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch kosher salt

For the glaze:
3 1/2 tablespoons butter
1 inch ginger, peeled and grated
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 pinch kosher salt
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar (or 1/4 granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon cornstarch, blended together at high speed)
1 tablespoon light corn syrup

1. Preheat oven to 375. Grease 7x11 in. baking dish with baking spray. For shortbread, put butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat together with mixer on medium until fluffy. Add flour, gringer, cardamom, baking powder, and salt. Mix until fully combined but still crumbly. Pour into baking pan and press flat (about 1/4 inch thick). Bake for 15 minutes, until top is golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool.
2. Make the glaze by combining ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then pour over cooled shortbread. Let cool again. Cut into rectangles and serve.

Strawberry Pecan Bread

It was difficult not to dance and bow before my oven as this baked...that's how delicious the smell was.

I'm still breaking in my new apartment kitchen. It's a tad smaller than my old place, but the gas stove/oven and general non-broken-downedness of the place does do wonders. And this was my first use of the oven, generating heavenly aromas as the loaf pans basked into perfection.

Strawberries  are such a gift. I want to find a way to incorporate them into every recipe, but then I guess they wouldn't be so special.

Folding these darlings into the batter was like swaddling your child in a blanket and dropping him off at daycare. Here, daycare is a bakery. Warm, cozy, your kid probably comes home with a great tan. Just the usual child-tending hullabaloo.

[Side salad: my new kitchen as a skylight and I'm so happy. The old place involved a constant battle with awful, yellow dull light.

At last I was able to combine the senses and enjoy both the smell, look, and taste of this marvelous creation.

Then the struggle became not eating it all before dinner...

Strawberry Pecan Bread (adapted from Farm Fresh Southern Cooking)
Makes 2 loaves.

3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/4 cup vegetable (or neutral) oil
2 cups hulled and diced strawberries
1 cup chopped pecans 

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly grease two loaf pans and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Whisk in beaten eggs and oil. Fold in strawberries and pecans.
3. Pour batter into loaf pans. Put in oven and bake for one hour (or until top is golden and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.)
4. Cool completely, slice, and serve. (I didn't make it through the cool completely part. It still works!)

Note: The bread freezes terrifically. If you're cool with saving it for later!

Blueberry Pie

Nothing like a long day at work to make you crave pie! I wanted something summery, sweet, and fresh to tickle my palate, and this concoction slid with easy grace into my heart.

I love Cook's Illustrated recipes for the background information and notes they give on their choices throughout the cooking process. It's enormously educational and has the added benefit of making me feel like a scientist. (Does Bill Nye have cookbooks?)

The crust came first. I placed salt, sugar, and 1 1/2 cups of the flour in the bowl of my food processor and combined them with a few quick pulses. Then I removed the butter and shortening from the freezer, where I'd placed them several minutes previously to get cold. I cut a stick and a half of butter into 1/4-inch pieces and scooped out 1/2 cup of shortening and quartered that.

I added these to the flour mixture and processed for 15 - 20 seconds until the dough was smooth, at which point I poured another cup of flour into the bowl and pulsed it into Sameness. Using a rubber spatula, I scooped the dough (which at this point should be smooth and tacky, but not overly sticky) into a medium bowl. There I sprinkled it with 1/4 cup vodka and then a 1/4 cup water. After all the liquid was added, I molded the dough with my hands, kneading it together until the water was fully incorporated. Then I divided the dough in two and formed each half into a 4-inch disk. The disks were then wrapped in plastic and placed in the refrigerator for thirty minutes.

I took out one of the disks and rolling it out on a floured work surface, pressing and spreading it till it was about 12 inches in diameter. Then I carefully transferred the base into my pie pan, allowing for at least a 1-inch overhang (though I did not achieve quite this all the way around.)

Then the time had dawned to construct the fabulous filling. I emptied three cups of berries into a medium saucepan and set the heat to medium.

The berries cooked for about 8-9 minutes. All the while, I used a potato masher to press down and juice the little buggers.

Once the juice had reduced and started to thicken, I took the berries off heat. In a medium bowl, I combined the other three cups of berries, grated apple, lemon zest, lemon juice, tapioca, sugar, and a pinch of salt. Then I poured in the cooked berries and their juices and stirred it all well to combine.

I set the oven to 400 and placed a rimmed pan on the lowest rack of the oven to heat up, and then I removed the pie pan from the refrigerator and slowly filled it with aromatic goodness.

Then I removed the other disk of dough from the refrigerator and rolled it out circularly into a 11-inch diameter. I took my tablespoon and--hollow-side down--pressed it into the middle of the circle, turning it slightly and pressing down again until I had a full circle cut-out. I removed the flat circle and repeated the process six times in a circle around the original cut-out, making each no less than 1.5 inches from the edge.

I scattered butter pieces over the filling of the pie, and then I draped the now-perforated circle loosely over my rolling pin and laid it out over the top of the pie pan. I pressed the bottom of a fork around the edges of the pie to seal the borders and create ridges in the crust.

I should have brushed the pie with the egg wash at this point, but I completely forgot. Still delicious! But I'll remember the next time. Even took out the egg and everything...

I placed the pie on the heated pan in the oven and cooked it for thirty minutes, at which time I lowered the temperature to 350 and cooked it for another 30-40 minutes until the crust was a golden-brown

Mid-bake. I couldn't  resist.

.Then once it had achieved the desired hue, I put the pie on a cooling rack and placed it in the refrigerator for about an hour, until it had cooled to room temperature.

There you have it! Pie...oh, my.

Blueberry Pie (from Cook's Illustrated)


Crust
2 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour (and more for work surface)
1 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons sugar
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold (1 1/2 sticks), chopped into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 cup vegetable shortening, cold, divided into 4 pieces
1/4 cup vodka (for texture, don't substitute)
1/4 cup water


Filling
6 cups fresh blueberries (or frozen and thawed)
2 teaspoons lemon zest
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca, ground
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and grated, wrung dry in dish towel
1 pinch table salt
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/4 inch pieces


1 large egg, lightly beaten with 1 teaspoon water for egg wash

Pumpkin Ginger Bread Pudding

Pumpkin season!

I've been wanting to try something pumpkiny for a while, since it saturates the fall culture so much in flavor and color and decoration and whatnot. I'm not much of a baker, since I tend to fall short of the necessary precision, but I wanted to bake a fun seasonal dessert that I could potentially bring to other gatherings.

I began by making crystallized ginger. I couldn't find any already-crystallized at the store, so I looked up a recipe and found it was really simple. I took fresh ginger root, then peeled it and sliced it thinly. I brought 3 cups of water to a boil in a medium saucepan, after which I added my ginger slices and a cup full of sugar. I reduced the heat and then covered the ginger and let it simmer for five minutes. I then removed the saucepan from heat and let it sit for another twenty minutes.

Here I preheated the oven to 200.

Meanwhile I took a large bowl and combined eggs, heavy cream, brown sugar, allspice, nutmeg, and vanilla extract. After it was mixed well, I stirred in the canned pumpkin and set this aside while I finished preparing my ginger.

I poured the ginger into a colander. At this point, I really, really wish I'd preserved the ginger water to make ginger ale, but I had nary an appropriate airtight container on hand for its safekeeping. Dadgummit.

Then I placed the ginger slices in a glass baking pan and put them in the oven for 8-10 minutes to dry out. After they were dried, I tossed them with sugar and then diced them up.

In a 7x11 baking pan, I combined a crumbled loaf of pound cake, the diced ginger, and golden raisins. Then I poured my liquid mixture all over and let it soak for fifteen minutes. During this time I preheated my oven to 375. Once the mixture was done soaking, I put the baking pan in the oven for 25 minutes. (For me this turned into 35 minutes, because I this one BLACK HOLE OF DEATH that refused to set properly. How it vexed me.)

Anyway! It all worked out eventually. I took the pan out of the oven, doled it out into individual bowls, and then garnished these with confectioners' sugar. Happy Fall!

Pumpkin Ginger Bread Pudding (adapted from Food Network)
1 lb 13 oz can pumpkin puree
2 cups heavy cream
4 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 loaf plain pound cake
1/4 cup crystallized ginger
1/2 cup golden raisins
Confectioners' sugar (garnish)

Crystallized ginger:
1/4 cup ginger
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup water

Summer Peach Cake

Eat the pain away.

Before making the delectable circle of peachy goodness displayed above, the closest I'd come to making a cake from scratch was getting the portions wrong on a box of red velvet cake mix and--with a little bit of feverish, not-exactly-detail-oriented improvising--somehow producing something edible.

(Side salad: the combination of staring at that picture and being hungry incited me to get up from the couch and procure leftovers from the fridge. Still delicious!)

This was a little nerve-wracking. I'm not very adept with baking and flour and whatnot all the time. When I made Beef Wellington, I ended up practically painting on the dough, but that's neither here nor there (though that tear-inducing, ultimately-not-disastrous adventure would have made for a heart-stopping post...sponsored by the good folks at Hyphen-City.)

I went to the neighborhood market and picked up my ingredients, including peaches (obviously) and peach schnapps. Cooks Illustrated recommends macerating the peaches in sugar, schnapps, and a little bit of lemon juice to enhance the flavor.

First I preheated my oven to 425 deg, then I chopped up the peaches into roughly 1/2 inch wedges.

Then I set aside about 24 of those and cut the rest of the wedges into thirds. Everything got all macerated, and then I spread the peach chunks (not the elite 24) in a single layer on a pan wrapped in foil and misted with Pam.

Baked the chunks for 20-25 minutes. Here's where Lucie got antsy, because once the baking finished, I had to cool the chunks to room temperature on my makeshift wire rack for 30 minutes. And all I wanted to do honestly is get that cake in the oven so I could eat it in time for work.

Whenever you feel is a good time for you personally, as a human being undertaking this recipe, to start making the batter, you go ahead and do that. But probably don't wait too long. Use your judgment.

I whisked together flour, baking powder, and salt. Then I peeled the label off my new cake pan and Pammed it. Then I remembered I had to melt the butter and cool it completely, so I'm glad I started in on the batter before the peaches were even out of the oven.

(Once you do pull the peaches out, reduce the oven temp to 350 and applaud yourself on being well on way your way to the world of good eating.)

In another bowl, I whisked together eggs, brown sugar, and 1/3 cup of granulated sugar until it was nice and smooth. To that I added sour cream, vanilla extract, and 1/4 tsp of the almond extract. As my peaches cooled, I happily combined the two batter bowls into one delicious batter. I strove heroically to save most of the batter for the cake and to stop being an overzealous "taste-tester."

Peach time! First I crushed up some panko and tossed the peach chunks. Next I poured half the batter into my pan and smoothed it over with a spatula, then added the recently-cooled peach chunks, pressing them down into a single layer. Poured in the rest of the batter. Then I took the reserved wedges and placed them in a circle atop the batter. Then I realized I had them facing the wrong way, so I jumped in for a quick amendment before adding the rest of the sugar, moistened with 1/8 tsp of almond extract, to the top of the cake.

Then with my eyes large and proud with hunger, I put the cake in the oven for about an hour.

After retrieving the cake from the oven, I was forced to watch it cool for two to three hours (I compressed the wait with a little freezer time, so I could enjoy a slice before work.)

And voila! Summer peach cake and a dwindling of my baking fear.

Summer Peach Cake (via Cooks Illustrated)

• 2 1/2pounds peaches , pitted and cut into 1/2 inch-thick wedges
• 5tablespoons peach schnapps
• 4teaspoons lemon juice
• 6tablespoons plus 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1cup (5 ounces) all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4teaspoon salt
• 1/2cup packed (3 1/2 ounces) light brown sugar
• 2large eggs
• 8tablespoons unsalted butter , melted and cooled
• 1/4cup sour cream
• 1 1/2teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/3cup panko bread crumbs , finely crushed